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Probation and parole director touts reentry successes, sets recidivism goal and requests level funding
Summary
Director Ward said his agency will pursue a level-funded FY26 budget while reallocating existing staff to even caseloads; he highlighted reentry programs (Perry County Prep Center) with zero returned-to-prison graduates and set a Reentry 2030 goal to lower recidivism from 29% to 15%.
Director Jimmy Ward, head of the Department of Probation and Parole, told the Joint Interim Committees the agency is requesting level funding for FY26 and described internal adjustments and programmatic work intended to reduce recidivism, expand reentry services and improve case management ratios.
"We're actually going in for a level funded request," Ward said, explaining that the agency is redistributing vacant positions across counties rather than asking for additional staff this year.
Why it matters: Probation and parole supervision, job training and treatment programs directly affect recidivism, public safety and corrections costs. Ward said targeted reentry investments aim to cut long-term incarceration and improve outcomes for people leaving prison.
Agency scale and staffing: Ward described the agency as roughly 806 employees, about half certified parole/probation officers and half administrative support, operating 62 field offices covering all 67 counties and five day-reporting centers. He said a target supervision ratio is about 1 officer to 85 supervisees; the agency has been shifting staff internally to approach that goal.
Reentry initiatives and outcomes: Ward described the Perry County Prep Center, opened April 2022, as a model reentry program focused on mental-health treatment, substance-abuse care and job training. He said nearly 300 program graduates have not returned to prison. Ward said the department received $5,490,000 in opioid funding used for treatment, prevention and partnerships with mental-health and veterans’ services.
Recidivism target and parole data: Ward said Alabama’s current recidivism rate is about 29% and the agency has adopted Reentry 2030 with a goal of reducing recidivism to about 15% by decade’s end. He reported parole grant rates rising from roughly 8% in earlier years to about 25–26% in recent months and noted an increase in individuals on probation from about 44,000 to 45,000.
Questions and follow-up: Legislators praised the Perry County Prep Center results and asked about second-chance or resentencing proposals; Ward emphasized individualized review and disciplinary-history checks before clemency or sentence-adjustment actions. He warned against simplistic quota-based parole decisions and highlighted that risk assessments may label some serious offenders as low risk for recidivism.
Ending: Ward asked the committee to consider the agency’s reentry focus as a cost-saving and public-safety strategy and said the department will continue to seek private-sector partners, training providers and community collaborations to sustain reentry success.
